Text: Ecclesiastes 4:9-12Discussion: How do you decide who is a friend?Solomon, the wisest man to ever live, teaches us the value of friendship and how it is not optional for a happy and full life.

Ecclesiastes 4:9-12Two are better than one; because they have a good reward for their labor. For if they fall, the one will lift up his fellow: but woe to him thatis alone when he falleth; for hehath not another to help him up. Again, if two lie together, then they have heat: but how can one be warm alone? And if one prevail against him, two shall withstand him; and a threefold cord is not quickly broken.

Good Reward= Good Return

The very best investment you will ever make in life will not be a financial one, but rather the investment made in relationships. We will get the best return on that investment over any other investment that we will ever make.

How do we go about making friends? (Proverbs 18:24)

A Real Friend Helps You When You’re Down. (v.10)

When do you hang out with your friends? Proverbs 17:17

“How can I tell the difference between acquaintances and friends.” That’s easy, just get in trouble, the people that are still around are your real friends, and there may not be as many left as you would have thought.

A Real Friend Is Someone Who Provides Emotional Warmth In A Cold, Cruel World. (v. 11)

We all know that the reality of life is that we encounter a lot of people who when we spend time with them, they send our emotional gas gauge all the way over to empty. We leave their presence absolute drained. But there are other people, and these are our friends, that when we spend time with them, our emotion gas gauge goes all the way over to full. There are two kinds of people in the world encouragers and discouragers, which group characterizes you?

A Real Friend Is Someone Who Will Fight To Protect You Or Your Reputation. (v. 12)

Friends not only never stab you in the back, they guard your back. A friend never puts up with gossip about their friends. Let me give you a definition of Gossip.

Gossip: When someone says something negative or unkind about someone who is not present, whether it is true or not.

A Real Friend Is Committed To Helping You Grow Spiritually. (Proverbs 27:17)

The greatest gift you can give someone is the gift of an invitation, an invitation to a relationship with God. True friends want to see us continue to grow. We need to be aware of our friends spiritual lives as well as their physical lives.

The spirit fights to take control of the mind because it needs fellowship with God

It fights to allow clear passage for the Spirit of God into your life.

It fights to overpower the visions of the flesh with the visions of the Spirit.

Satan is powerless when these messages come through clearly, so his objective is to jumble them up.

Strategy #1: Yearning / _________ for God (Ps 42:1)
Strategy #2: Provoking the Mind to Consider _________ (Proverbs 1:20)
Strategy #3: The ______ of the Spirit – (Gal 5:22-23) love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-controlTraining is needed_____________Proverbs 23:7a, “For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he.”
Isaiah 26:3, “Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee: because he trusteth in thee.”We have someone in our cornerI Corinthians 2:16Isn’t it exciting to realize that you can hold the thoughts, feelings, and purposes of God’s very own heart in your heart?I Corinthians 6:17God wants you in this harmony with Him so that His thoughts can become your actions.